July 14, 2017

Consumers Search for Simplicity

One of the most astonishing trends of the past few decades has been people’s seemingly bottomless appetite for consuming more media. It seems they may have finally reached the saturation point: a study from the Zenith media agency found worldwide growth is nearly flat (although North American growth is still creeping ahead). More intriguing, a company called BioPage has decided to launch a new social media platform that limits users to two posts per day, “preventing users from being bombarded with status updates and having to scroll through post after post just to keep up with it all.” And, although the data may be skewed by changes in its customer base, journey orchestration vendor Kitewheel reports that social interactions through its system fell from 75% of interactions in 2014 to just 5% in 2016. Obviously, total traffic on social networks continues to rise but maybe this won’t continue indefinitely after all.

One reason media time might decline is the growth of alternative interfaces, notably voice devices like Amazon Alexa. A study by the Walker Sands marketing agency found that 24% of consumers currently own a voice controlled device, 19% have already made a purchase through a voice device, and 33% are likely to make such a purchase in the next year. Meanwhile, National Public Media found that 65% of smart speaker owners wouldn’t go back to life without one. (They also found that one-third of non-owners fear the government would listen in on them.) On the other hand, even the latest conveniences may no longer be enough to sell new tech: behavior measurement company Verto Analytics found that phone-based personal assistants like Apple Siri are slowly falling in popularity, except for navigation and mapping apps. They also found the most avid users of personal assistant apps are 52 year old women, which the report delicately describes as “ a demographic population that traditionally falls outside of the expected early adopter user base.”

The CDP Institute educates marketers about the issues, methods, and technology used to manage customer data, with a special focus on Customer Data Platforms. Join the CDP Institute for free access to valuable information and insights.